Poverty
About one-third of the population lived in poverty, with the wealthy expected to give alms to assist the impotent poor. Tudor law was harsh on the able-bodied poor i.e., those unable to find work. Those who left their parishes in order to locate work were termed vagabonds and could be subjected to punishments, including whipping, burning, execution and putting at the stocks.
The idea of the workhouse for the able-bodied poor was first suggested in 1576.
Read more about this topic: Tudor Period, Daily Life in The Period
Famous quotes containing the word poverty:
“People with a culture of poverty suffer much less from repression than we of the middle class suffer and indeed, if I may make the suggestion with due qualification, they often have a hell of a lot more fun than we have.”
—Brian Friel (b. 1929)
“To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)